Living in Our World. 1997. Dr. Richard G. Boehm, et al. Harcourt Brace & Company, New York.
Communities Around Us. 1997. Juan R. Garcia, et al. Silver Burdette, Parsippany, New Jersey.
The two third grade social studies textbooks
we evaluated, Living in Our World and Communities Around Us, are both compatible
with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. The books are designed
to increase children’s understandings about community life in a variety
of ways. The chapters compare familiar communities with those of other
cultures and times, bridging our world together. Students learn about
the value of being a part of a community, locally and globally.
The overall structures of the books are similar
because each is one is broken into different themes, including what a community
is, the kind of people that make up a community, and how communities grow
and change. Communities Around Us goes into a historical perspective
on communities of yesterday and today. More specifically, it engages
children in lessons on Native Americans, Pilgrims, and Pioneers.
The author of Living in our World chooses not to emphasize the history
aspect of community. Both textbooks include projects that incorporate
map skills. Inclusive in the texts are graphs, tables and diagrams.
Overall, each book allows the students to understand, explore, and try
the concepts.
Although both books are compatible to the
North Carolina Standard Course of Study, they are both unique in their
approaches. Communities Around Us has a more in-depth study
of each chapter. Comprehension and critical thinking questions
are included throughout each lesson. Living in Our World does
not include many extra learning activities. However, it does have
some activities that appeal to students with different learning styles.
For example, it allows visual learners to view and interpret maps.
The summaries of the two books are where the main differences can be found.
Communities Around Us does a wonderful job summarizing each chapter.
The summaries include seven different areas which allow for comprehension,
skill power, critical thinking, vocabulary review, map studies, creativity,
and the ability to use the information in their own communities.
Living in Our Community only includes a few questions that help the students
recall the facts and focus on the main idea. One activity to associate
the subject to everyday life is also included. Communities Around Us includes
an excellent bibliography at the end of each chapter. It recommends
books for students and teachers, and technology resources such as software,
videos, and web sites. We feel that Communities Around Us does a
better job at summarizing and reviewing the material covered in each chapter.
However, both textbooks display wonderful
integration techniques. Each chapter includes stories that relate
to the material and ideas on how to include other literature into the topics.
Ideas for subject integration are also included throughout the text.
Art is used through having students draw maps and pictures of their own
communities. Music is also included to enhance each chapter. The
books do a great job in showing the diversity of each community.
A wide range of culture and race are displayed through the various pictures
and literature throughout the entire text.
After comparing the two books, we have concluded
that Communities Around Us is quite well rounded, allowing for better learning.
It is more user friendly for beginning teachers because of the various
additional ideas it includes.